http://brightsideblogger.blogspot.com/

This blog is officially closing due to replication of messaging on the http://brightsideblogger.blogspot.com/ site.
Join me there!!
Chad

Netherlands here we come, again

Have you ever seen the land reclaimed from the North Sea, or the dikes?
What enormous projects and results!!!

The Hoover Dam - yup, it's big, but not near the scope of what these babies are.

I'm recollecting from the last trip I took to the Netherlands. It's not me on the trip this time.
I hope my partner gets a chance to take a quick trip North and experience the massiveness of these wonders of recent history.

Chad

update - fun stuff

Lots happening lately!!

1. Netherlands job - big context and team building opportunity - Interviews happening for insight and awareness building.
2. Social networking technologies session coming up - should be fun and hopefully beneficial for our marketing, presence building needs.
3. Strategic planning, executive team building & development, execution with synergy, acceleration of results are all components - interviews in process.
4. Fear surveys still in process - learning lots of variations on impact of fear - organizational culture and personal preference seem to greatly impact perceptions of fear and its' impact on performance.
5. Coaching a global company operations leadership group for deployment and some competency development enhancement.
6. Fun presentation for OD group based on double-loop learning coming up - action learning design after initial 15 minute knowledge and awareness building.
7. Lots of presentations and speaking engagements scheduled for diversity, inclusion, women's movement, career focus, etc.

It's good to be so busy!

Chad

new computers and business turnaround

The thrill of new computers (actually used but newer than what we currently have) is exciting and fun. That is until installation is undertaken.

I lost my fervor for newness when I discovered incompatible software needs, server conflicts with e-mail, corrupted software disks, missing software license numbers, different versions of Microsoft office, etc., etc.

So, after one and half days of installing two computers with three more to go, I've lost my enthusiasm.

Despite my lost ardor, they will be completed this coming week.

Business seems to be turning around and prospects are agreeing to move forward, calling us, etc. Good stuff for the future!!!!

Chad

Busy, Busy, Busy - two reponses

You gotta love it when you're busy!!

Sometimes I unconsciously throw up barriers to being busy and don't realize these barriers are there until I reflect and become more self-aware. (a technique we teach)

The trigger for me is when I feel tense, irritable and under the gun. Typically a self-imposed tension. This causes me to reflect about what is causing me to be this way.

Lo and behold - busyness is sometimes the answer. Then I have to make a choice:

1) Fortunately, this time I immediately recognized the tension cue was based on having many customers requiring support and then it triggered a reaction other than tension - Excitement and thanks!!

Excitement that I have the opportunity to meet new people, learn something new, provide service that helps individuals and organizations excel.
Thanks that clients desire our services, continue to do business with us, and recognize the value we deliver.

So, business is good when it means new challenges, new relationships, helping others, learning new things, designing new deliverables, etc. - Excitement and thanks are appropriate.

2) Of course, sometimes busyness is self-inflicted and is not value-adding for me or for others. Awareness of this type of busyness causes another behavioral trigger - to prioritize and jettison some of the activity I have undertaken.

I'm glad our busyness is with clients and projects because it makes it easy to prioritize all the tasks required of me in that they are all high priority needs from customers.

How do you respond to busyness? What are you aware of as your initial response? Are you able to intentionally change your response before it carries you down some path you really don't want to travel.

Chad

NEO needs accredited job skills training programs

Discovery of the day!!

NEO needs accredited (contributing to a degreed program) job skills training programs.

Schools and workforce development programs need to align and collaborate to save our economy and businesses in NEO.

Board of Regents, school administrators, professors, workforce development coordinators, government funding groups, etc. need to join forces to address this issue.

Currently workforce development programs are not accredited and can not get credits awarded their programs that contribute to degrees. This is ridiculous when you look at the bigger and broader picture of the NEO economy and business environment.

Leaders who value our future will join together and start with this simple change of collaborating to see that workforce development groups receive accreditation for classes, etc.

Chad

Culture Change

CULTURE ASSESSMENT

Designing an expanded Cultural Assessment to evaluate strength of culture, values, heroes, norms, artifacts, stories, etc.

• Can be used to strengthen existing cultural components aligned with business needs
• Can be used to adjust or change cultural components to align with business needs

Strong cultures that align and link with business strategies, plans, priorities and goals enhance performance, accelerate delivery, and build confidence among all employees to act versus wait when opportunities arise.

Misaligned cultures tend to slow people down due to poor connection, mistrust, conflicts in behavior, misunderstanding of ethical issues, etc.

Call us and provide your thoughts about culture and how we can assure we cover all bases in our expanded assessment.

Chad

Traveling week

Chicago and San Francisco this week
Thank goodness for our local staff to hold down the office!!

Sales, coaching and delivery are consuming us.

As long as reorganizations, acquisitions, globalization, lean sigma strategies, emerging leaders, diversity/inclusion, competency building, succession, needs analysis, executive coaching, etc. keep happening I think we are safe to say we will be needed.

What's amazing is we seem to devote time to keeping our own evolution, services and relevance pertinent as well.

Thanks for working with us!!

Chad

Recent and future events

Yea!!!

A large organization analysis of training needs is agreed to by an old client.

Australia is closing in on us.

A fortune 500 company approaches us for more work with their women career and succession support.

We established a few new possibilities last week with new and existing clients.

Job opportunities are proliferating!!!

Chad

I'm a traveling man (so the song goes)

Columbus, Cincinnati, Detroit, Wooster, San Francisco over the next two weeks. Whew!

Trying to keep up with sales and customer is a challenge at times, so combining both is the best idea, particularly when the client is covering the cost of the travel.

Managing time and territory is difficult as a salesperson, let alone when you are delivering, designing, coaching, conferencing, communicating, learning, researching, running an office, and all the other requirements necessary for keeping your business alive and prosperous.

Between Donna Rae, Chris and me, we manage to keep it running and still create new modules that address current client/business issues, as well as share our models for behavioral change and leadership that accelerate and build sustainable solutions to future clients.

We have a great office group who is doing research, coordinating travel, selling and making the office hum as it should. Thanks to Shannon, Maressa and Robin for making this happen so we all can do what we love - help you, our clients. By the way, Robin is new to our group, she has a tremendous background and an OD degree from Case which she is parlaying into new opportunties and sales.

What other way is there to live than to maximize your capability and stretch into your capacity??

Chad

Innovation and Career Presentations - Intrapraneurialism

Donna Rae is speaking to a group of executive women at P&G today!!

I spoke to a group of business leaders about Innovation last evening!

At the presentation another speaker spoke about Entrepreneurialism and how to make it happen for yourself. He had a ton of start-up examples and stories.

He got me to thinking about a concept we exploited at Rubbermaid - Intrapraneurialism. The strategy was to create opportunities within the organization for ideas (be they product, process, technology, structure, etc.) to be owned and deployed/executed by the creator - a Great Way to make things happen that move the business forward in new and different ways.

So, our website, retail stores, some new product lines, business teams, financial metrics (EVA), and many more ideas were introduced and "owned" by individuals or small groups who sponsored, fostered and grew them to a value-contributing level of performance.

Just a thought for those of you who see entrepreneurialism from a start-up person only. It also applies to innovation from an inside-the-business perspective as well.

Chad

WSJ interview

Bright Side had an interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter yesterday about how we work with our clients to support their leadership and their leaders with accelerating and sustaining major changes and transformations.

Our recent executive coaching client is getting spectacular results in sales, employee feedback, discipline to process, margin management, etc. Feels good to help during tough times.

We now have a portal for on-line learning. Call or e-mail and we can forward it to you for a review. Pretty cool!!! (440) 543-1800 or info@bright-side.com

New Offerings in place and coming up soon!!

Hey, we now have a "Employee Free Choice Act" Orientation, Assessment and Development Curriculum.
Hopefully the law will not pass but it's good to be prepared!!

We also have a lean sigma certification program for EMS, Police, Sheriff's offices, and Fire Departments.
Lot's of savings to be had!!

Soon, we will have an on-line learning presence with over 1,000 courses for certifications, general learning and managerial/supervisory learning.
A great supplement to our behavioral system for leadership!!

Call with questions!!!

A different way of looking at leadership style

Raising the urgency and priority of a need - Influencing Others

1. Many leaders have one hammer to use when pushing to get things done - task-harping. This works only so long then people become immune to it. They disengage.
2. Some leaders push through the expression of personal passion. This is also a tool that works for only a short time before others ignore it.
3. Some leaders push using logic and reason, justification and rationale. Again, only a temporary impact is felt by followers.
4. Lastly, some lead through relationship expectations that leverage others emotions and feelings of commitment to not fail the leader for the sake of the relationship. A dangerous tool to use for any length of time due to the love/hate consequences generated from it's use.

There is a time and place for each of these styles in the world of leading others.
The trick is to apply them appropriately and not become a single style leader.

Thoughts and comments?

Executive Coaching

The Executive Coaching contract for a US retail chain just came through. Lots of opportunity to enhance business results.

Should mean a lot of travel this coming month, as well. Starting next week and will remain very intensive throughout the month.

Catching Up to Date With What Is Happening At Bright Side

Welcome!!

Bright Side is a busy place these days.

In the recent past we completed projects to assist a non-profit re-connect their many different groups / divisions to gain synergies through the use of processes, tools, relationships and clarity of focus for the future.
Another organization requested assistance with leading a strategic meeting focused on the future of their organization.
A constant client of Bright Side asked for a perspective of the current issues and future focus for his organization, based on our insights from interviews and exposure to leaders at all levels, that he could incorporate into a meeting he scheduled with his CEO.

Coming up in the future, Donna Rae has speaking engagements scheduled during April, May and August, at present. One of them is in Australia!

Current Projects include:
Merger / Acquisition integration of two significantly different cultures. The need is for leveraging the best practices of both cultures such that productivity and performance can be maximized. Our objective is to reduce the cycle time for this integration and assure a sustainable culture results.

Executive Coaching is being done with three different clients in the areas of:
1) Implementing an integrated supply chain solution globally
2) Building a diversity and inclusion strategy in a geographically dispersed organization
3) Rebuilding sales and operational strength /discipline in a domestic retail chain of stores
4) One project is to work with an executive team to help them collaborate more seamlessly during these tough times

A couple of upcoming projects we hope to activate soon are:
1) Working with a health care group to improve patient satisfaction and employee satisfaction
2) Supporting a division of a large food retailer with integrating innovation and learning into their daily work behaviors and habits

Bright Side is also working on three large endeavors in the training & development arena:
1) A public session of Lean Sigma Certification for EMS, Police Departments, Sheriffs Offices, and Fire Departments to take place mid-Summer and continue into the Fall.
2) An Orientation, Overview, Assessment and Curriculum addressing the EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act) that is being decided on in Congress right now. This Act threatens businesses everywhere, and of all sizes, with non-voting unionization without recourse from management.
3) A massive on-line University of business courses that is being created for universal access at an economic rate.

As always we are doing the Career and Leader coaching for individuals to assist them with best serving themselves and their employers.

Future adds will not be as extensive now that the baseline is established.

Sincerely,
Chad